Camera - Low Light Evaluation - Night Sight

Of course one of the new exciting features about the new Pixel 3 is the promise of its Night Sight mode. As mentioned a few pages back, in order to enable this facility we’re using a modified camera application in order to get the mode working for this review, as otherwise it would have made for a pretty boring low-light comparison.

I’m also showcasing the camera differences on the original Pixel as well as Pixel 2, so that users can see what kind of improvements they can expect on their existing devices. Both of these devices also have the Night Sight enabled option for the software.

Click for full image
[ Pixel 3 ] - [ Pixel 2 ] - [ Pixel XL ]
[ Mate 20Pro ] - [ Mate 20 ] - [ P20Pro ]
[ P20 ] - [ Mate 10Pro ] - [ iPhone XS ] - [ iPhone X ]
[ Note9 ] - [ S9+ ] - [ S8 ] - [ LG G7 ] - [ LG V30 ]
[ OnePlus 6 ] - [ OPPO FindX ] - [ MIX2S ]

In the first construction scene, the difference between the auto shot and the Night shot are, pardon the pun, night and day. Here the differences in processing are quite astounding and make for a major improvement in the Pixel’s low-light capture ability.

The resulting image is significantly brighter than what how the scene looked in reality. I’d even go as far that the Pixel is so aggressive with the exposure here that it even goes a bit too far, as the Mate 20 Pro’s auto mode and Mate 20’s night mode seem a lot more realistic. It’s to be noted that the Mate 20 Pro’s result is achieved with no software tricks – just relying on the ISO25600 mode of its sensor.

The Pixel 2, with the Night Sight enabled software, manages to get a near identical result to the Pixel 3, and even the original Pixel doesn’t seem too far off.

Click for full image
[ Pixel 3 ] - [ Pixel 2 ] - [ Pixel XL ]
[ Mate 20Pro ] - [ Mate 20 ] - [ P20Pro ]
[ P20 ] - [ Mate 10Pro ] - [ iPhone XS ] - [ iPhone X ]
[ Note9 ] - [ S9+ ] - [ S8 ] - [ LG G7 ] - [ LG V30 ]
[ OnePlus 6 ] - [ OPPO FindX ] - [ MIX2S ]

Night Sight doesn’t seem to need to be used in very dark scenes to show a benefit, as even with artificially lit objects such as the tree here we can see benefits to the scene. The result puts the Pixel phones far ahead of conventional shooters from Samsung and Apple, with only Huawei’s being able to keep up and battle Google’s new algorithm.

One characteristic of Night Sight is that it doesn’t seem to be able to actually bring down highlights – Huawei’s implementation on the other hand will do this, and that’s why the tree in Huawei’s mode is far less blown-out compared to Google’s camera.

Where Google does shine is in terms of detail retention – the Pixels are able to retain significantly more details than Huawei, and for that matter, the Pixels retain more details than all of the other phones.

Click for full image
[ Pixel 3 ] - [ Pixel 2 ] - [ Pixel XL ]
[ Mate 20Pro ] - [ Mate 20 ] - [ P20 ]
[ Mate 10Pro ] - [ iPhone XS ] - [ iPhone X ] - [ Note9 ]
[ S9+ ] - [ S8 ] - [ LG V30 ] - [ OnePlus 6 ] - [ OPPO FindX ]

The main benefits of Night Sight in scenarios where there is sufficient light is that it allows for better detail retention and less noise. Google competition here is again Huawei – however the Pixels are able to edge out the P20’s and Mate 20’s in terms of detail retention and less noise.

Click for full image
[ Pixel 3 ] - [ Pixel 2 ] - [ Pixel XL ]
[ Mate 20Pro ] - [ Mate 20 ] - [ P20Pro ]
[ P20 ] - [ Mate 10Pro ] - [ iPhone XS ] - [ iPhone X ]
[ Note9 ] - [ S9+ ] - [ S8 ] - [ LG G7 ] - [ LG V30 ]
[ OnePlus 6 ] - [ OPPO FindX ] - [ MIX2S ]

When going into lower light scenes, again, the Pixels are able to produce images that are much brighter than how the scene was originally.

Again, the only phones able to compete in terms of light capture are Huawei’s – but again, the Pixels are able to produce a better image thanks to better detail retention. Huawei’s phones here most likely are suffering from the lack of OIS on their main cameras.

Click for full image
[ Pixel 3 ] - [ Pixel 2 ] - [ Pixel XL ]
[ Mate 20Pro ] - [ Mate 20 ] - [ P20Pro ]
[ P20 ] - [ Mate 10Pro ] - [ iPhone XS ] - [ iPhone X ]
[ Note9 ] - [ S9+ ] - [ S8 ] - [ LG G7 ] - [ LG V30 ]
[ OnePlus 6 ] - [ OPPO FindX ] - [ MIX2S ]

Although this is meant to be a comparison between 18 phones, the real fight here is just between the Pixel 3 and Huawei’s devices. Again the Pixels here significantly win because of the vast advantages in terms of detail retention and sharpness – far ahead of any other phone.

Extreme low-light

Extreme low light scenarios is something as early as last year we wouldn’t have expected phones to be viable in. Again I started shooting such scenes earlier in the year when Huawei made its Night mode usable without a tripod – along with vendors like LG introducing pixel binning modes that quadruple the light capture of the sensors.

Click for full image
[ Pixel 3 ] - [ Pixel 2 ] - [ Pixel XL ]
[ Mate 20Pro ] - [ Mate 20 ] - [ P20Pro ]
[ P20 ] - [ Mate 10Pro ] - [ iPhone XS ] - [ iPhone X ]
[ Note9 ] - [ S9+ ] - [ S8 ] - [ LG G7 ] - [ LG V30 ]
[ OnePlus 6 ] - [ OPPO FindX ] - [ MIX2S ]

This shot is very similar to the first one in that the Pixels are able to generate such bright pictures that I’d say they’re overexposed. Again, only Huawei’s phones and as well as the LG G7’s LLS mode are able to achieve similar light capture. The latter suffers from a stark lack of details, leaving only Huawei’s phones in the competition.

What is very interesting is to see just how much colour accuracy Google is able to achieve even with such low brightness levels.

Click for full image
[ Pixel 3 ] - [ Pixel 2 ] - [ Pixel XL ]
[ Mate 20Pro ] - [ Mate 20 ] - [ P20Pro ] - [ Mate 10Pro ]
[ iPhone XS ] - [ iPhone X ] - [ Note9 ] - [ S9+ ] - [ S8 ]
[ LG G7 ] - [ LG V30 ] - [ OnePlus 6 ] - [ OPPO FindX ] - [ MIX2S ]

The last shot I wanted to take the phones to their limits – the vast majority of phones here won’t be able to discern nearly anything and many will just produce a black picture. The scene was solely illuminated by moonlight of a full moon as well as some far as way industrial spotlights.

Even here, the Pixel’s Night Sight is able to deliver, producing a semi visible result of the object. Only the Mate 20 Pro’s ISO102400 shot was able to come near the exposure levels, but with significantly more noise.

Low-light conclusion

This conclusion of the Pixel 3 in low light would have sounded extremely differently if I had just used Google’s official camera application and not tested Night Sight. I’ve never really understood why people claimed the Pixel 2 camera to be good in low-light, because in my experience as well as visible in these sample shots, the Pixels were never really competitive and are outclassed by the better sensors from Samsung and Apple, when capturing in traditional modes.

Night Sight is very much a game-changer to this situation, and Google is able to showcase an outstanding example of computational photography that vastly beats even the wildest expectation of what a smartphone camera is able to achieve in low-light scenarios.

In a swoop, Google’s Pixels significantly climb up the ladder in terms of low-light photography ranking, even putting themselves at a comfortable distance ahead of the previous low-light champions, Huawei’s 40MP sensor phones as well as their own night mode.

Camera - Daylight Evaluation - Dynamic Range Camera Video Recording & Speaker Evaluation
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  • Rmrx8 - Saturday, November 3, 2018 - link

    I actually like the ear buds. I bought them for my pixel 2 and I enjoy them just as much as Apple EarPods. Too bad more time wasn't spent on this on the review. Reviews of these have been mixed with people either loving them or hating them. I do lots of recording and the cut in on the mic is much less aggressive than the apple buds, which is a good thing for me. The higher frequencies on googles buds are attenuated a bit. But otherwise I like them and they don't fall out. Also age matters. I'm 51. Undoubtedly a younger person will have better hearing and maybe find more problems, as you age the differences start to disappear.
  • TidalWaveOne - Friday, November 2, 2018 - link

    My Pixel 2 will do just fine... hopefully the Pixel 4 will be good enough to justify an upgrade.
  • Genspirit - Friday, November 2, 2018 - link

    Also did i just miss it or was there no mention of the selfie camera or numerous camera features like top shot? Or live google lens integration. I love the in-depth testing on performance and the camera but I do feel like a lot of what makes the pixel a pixel was left out.
  • BNSFguy - Friday, November 2, 2018 - link

    " I would easily choose USB-C earbuds from any other primary smartphone vendor."

    That's pretty comical statement seeing that there are very, very, few choices for "USB - C" headphones, and most, if not all, are significantly more expensive than the $30.00 Google USB-C Headphones included for FREE with the phone. I mean, just go shopping for a pair of USB-C headphones. You won't find a single pair at any retail store such as Best Buy, and very few online anywhere.
  • imaheadcase - Saturday, November 3, 2018 - link

    THat is why most people use bluetooth
  • papoose34328 - Friday, November 2, 2018 - link

    Hi Andrei,

    Thank you for your very thorough review! Very informative
  • cfenton - Friday, November 2, 2018 - link

    My take away from this review is that it's probably better to try to get a cheap used Pixel 2. Google have lost their edge in daylight photo quality, and the Pixel 2 looks almost as good using Night Shift.

    Also, since Night Shift seems to be mostly a software feature, is there any reason it couldn't be ported to other Android phones? Obviously Google won't do it, but is there any hope that some clever XDA person will. I remember the Pixel camera was ported to other S820 devices, with varying degrees of success.
  • arayoflight - Friday, November 2, 2018 - link

    It's already been ported to many Nokia and Xiaomi devices, and active work is being done to make it work on OnePlus devices as well.
  • bull2760 - Friday, November 2, 2018 - link

    I made the switch to the PIXEL 3 from Apple iPhones. It's very interesting to see that a hardware testing site has not mentioned any of the cellular signal issues that are plaguing iPhone XS and XS Max users. I had the iPhone 10SX Max for 4 days and returned it due to extremely poor cellular service I was getting. From my research it is due to the 4x4 antennas that are being used. FCC testing shows that the new iPhones have signal issues when not in a strong signal area. I experienced this with the short time I had the phone. 4 dropped calls/call failed within minutes of each other. I'd be sitting next to my wife her on her iPhone 7 me on my MAX and my phone would have no service. I looked at her phone and she is pulling almost 3/4 antenna signal. Why is Tom's not diving into this? Anyway I got tired of Apple's crap and decided it was time to try my first Android phone. I looked at the Galaxy Note, and while I like the phone I'm not a fan of the curved edge screen. Plus the key point for me with buying the Pixel 3 is pure Android no UI installed on top of it so as Google roles out the next version of Android my phone will get the update automatically. So far so good, I'm really liking the Pixel 3. I should mention I am not a heavy gamer, I didn't buy a cell phone to game. I use it primarily for business answering email on the fly and calling customers.
  • pjcamp - Friday, November 2, 2018 - link

    "In order to combat this low memory, one new hardware/software feature is an application memory management 'lowmmemorykiller' background application/daemon which applies various settings to keep certain software in memory for fast app loading times. Whilst in general I don’t put as much value into this as some other people do, I did however notice that in everyday use the phones did need to reload applications more often. There have been user reports already that the phones are struggling to keep things open and alive in memory. "

    That's because software never compensates for skimping on the hardware. They could include more memory, but Google wants to push you into the cloud for everything. They could include removable storage but Google thinks people who use USB sticks every day will be confused.

    If it weren't for the fact that every other vendor seems to be dumber than a sack of doorknobs, Pixels would be going nowhere fast, but that isn't saying much. Lenovo essentially killed Motorola, Nokia won't sell anything of significance in the US, and everyone else can't resist product positioning by skinning the life out of Android.

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